WTB: Drill Press Table Lock Handle

This is a second post with more information/options - still looking for a table lock handle for a WT/Rockwell 20" drill press. It is a recessed 12 point hex handle (1" across flats) with a 5/8" through hole. Here is a picture of the belt tensioning handle that is very similar. What I'm looking for does not need to cross drilled for a tension pin.

ideally I could find an OEM handle but I could also use any handle with the recessed hex that fit. I could modify the through hole if the hex fit. An example would be the tension handle shown above.

Another option would be any cast iron handle of a similar shape without the recessed hex and/or thorugh hole, I could use it with some more significant modifications.

Thanks Larry - I agree that fabrication will most likely be required. Assuming I won't find an original OEM - it would be nice to start with a cast iron handle of the same vintage that I could use with a socket or box end wrench as a starting point.

..used on MY W-T .. is a repurposed cheap black-oxide socket drilled for what HAD been the tilt-steering wheel lever off a 1968 Chrysler Imperial Crown Coupe...

Really - a vintage Bugatti or such it is not. The DP is blind as a bat, won't know or care what you use, so long as it fits your hand and gets the job done.

Bill

While I agree with you in principle Bill - but we all have different perspectives. Mine is that when I spend as much time as I do touching every single
nut, bolt, spring, washer and casting - cleaning and painting - then to me it is worth the effort to at least try and find the original parts or something close. I very well may have to compromise with some cobbed up solution but for the time being I'm going to continue the hunt for the correct parts.

I do appreciate your perspective but I'm not ready to go down that path yet.

One of the 'closer to original' LOOKING easy-to-find items could be one of the several aftermarket replacement BP mill knee-crank handles, then.

'Bout US$ 35 from any of several ebay shops, and doesn't look all that hard to modify at the dog-clutch type hub. Could be a bit longish, but maybe not... If one has no lathe, it wouldn't be the first time the DP itself and some powered work with files made a handle-pin with nice curves to it, so even a too-long crank could be shortened, re-drilled, nicely shaped up, and fitted with fixed or free-spinning handle.

Mike - that appears to be exactly what I am looking for although my press is a little newer than yours I think. It is a 1962 vintage shortly after Rockwell bought WT but many of the design features do not appear to have been changed at that point. Thanks for the Plaza machinery reference - I'd completely forgot about them. I'll send Joe an email.

Steve - thanks for that link - that has a lot of possibilites and would probably be a close runner up to an original. Depending on what I hear from Plaza - I may be buying that.

Ray - that's a nice source - even though they don't have anything that seems to match what I need should options 1 and 2 fall apart I can contact them for something that may not be on their website display. Also looks like a good source for other yet to be identified future needs.

Bill - that's definitely a good idea as well - I've got one of those knee handles on my Bridgeport that I took a look at after your suggestion. It definitely has possibilities although would require some significant modification - but not out of the realmof possibility.

Thanks to all for your suggestions and I apologize, specifically to Bill, if my post from yesterday seemed a little snarky - not at all what I intended.

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